Halloween Oneshots 2016

Happy Halloween! Just a few oneshots to end the season. I'll add the pictures a little later, I'm not feeling well at the moment so I'm being a little lazy. At least I had fun, and I hope you did, too.


Kurenai Kuraki  by Kazuko Furumiya


Genre: Shojo, Horror
Length: Oneshot - 60 Pages

Spooky and a bit gory, this oneshot has too much story to actually make full sense. Even though it's the longest of the three stories I read, it reads as the most rushed. It feels more like a set up than an independent short story. The girl isn't really built up enough before the spooks happen and the male lead leaves more questions than answers. The art is a little unremarkable as well, making it about average.


2.5/5 An okay read.



Nyanderful by Sekaiichi Asakura



Genre: Seinen, Horror
Length: Oneshot - 26 Pages

A young bakeneko goes out on her first night of haunting the newest heir of the family her ancestors swore to ruin. Silliness ensues. The very cavalier art style and simplistic story are charming and engaging. Just the looks on the faces are funny; the very round head of the main character is great for this, actually. I had a good time, still, I'd be remiss if I didn't also say it was weird. Its no secret that I like weird, though and after having a taste, I wish there was more of the little monster doing her best.


5/5 Sweet and silly.




The End in Common Ruin by Mitsukazu Mihara


Genre: Horror, Supernatural
Length: Oneshot - 9 Pages

A story of two twins who were never apart and wanted to stay together forever. The queen of gothic lolita strikes again! The straight edged art and dark, large eyes gave away the mangaka right away. The story, too, is stark and blunt. Telling a story in such a short time and yet still having such a complete beginning, middle, and end, is wonderful. Definitely right for the season.

 
5/5 Dark and tragic.

Saiteihen no Otoko by Mikoto Yamaguchi

Tomorrow is finally Halloween, and I have a few one shots lined up for extra spook. Happy Candy!

Saiteihen no Otoko (Scumbag Loser) by Mikoto Yamaguchi

Genre: Adult, Horror, Supernatural
Length: 3 Volumes - 14 Chapters and one Extra


           The art is pretty stark, no softening tones at all, and that really adds to the harshness of the story. Facial expressions quickly turn from innocuous to frightening at the change of a panel. That being said, it's also a little wonky at times with profile views being a little off and the like. The clothes and the body shapes are a little strange, too. The clothing in particular often looked too tight, I don't know if that was to accentuate the awkward and contradictory ways people acted through out the story but it just looked like people bought clothes one size too small all the time. Even when it's supposed to be a hot girl, the ill fitting clothes are distracting and ugly. It's adequate.

           Murai Masahiko is obsessed with not being the worst "scumbag loser" in his class, in fact, just being second to last is fine with him, but when the guy worse off than he is gets a girlfriend Murai finds himself in a precarious situation. So he blurts out that he has one, too, showing pictures of an old classmate that moved away. In a strange coincidence, she transfers into their class as soon as he says it. Walking his "girlfriend" home, though he confronts her because his childhood neighbor Mizusawa Haruka actually died five years ago!

           This manga is about gross people, and I am not joking. The "hero" of this story has a scent fetish which allows him to notice things others don't but also leads to him sniffing things in a perverted manner. It almost was too much for me at the beginning, but there is a mystery in the story that kept me from quitting, and although my affection for this story never rose, I still found it an interesting read and I'll tell you why. Although it may not seem like it in the beginning, there is an intense scrutiny of social norms and the meaning of a parent's so called "unconditional love" in this manga, as well as what it means to be different from others. Having flawed people trying to remain so instead of throwing away their ugliness is something not often seen in any kind of entertainment, outside of children's programs telling kids they are special, and I did find that to be a unique and empathetic situation. Meanwhile, in the horror section of the story, there is a growing cult of people who become perfect overnight and keep luring others into their embrace. Seeing the two types of people interact was compelling. Still there are many times things were uncomfortable, to say the least, and other times there was too much dialog, so it's hard to like overall. It's sufficiently spooky until the end where you're suddenly hit with an emotional, blood splattered wrap-up. The ending isn't even that fulfilling, either, so it's a bit of a blindside when the tone changes and things aren't really explained. Saiteihen no Otoko is just conflicting that way. The gross characters are really off putting but the actual plot is very engrossing, so I say give it a shot but I won't blame you if you can't make it past the underwear sniffing main character.


3/5 The good is nearly out shadowed by the nasty.
 

Nemuri no Fuchi by Ayumu Nakamura

I'm so late with this review I'm posting it this week instead of last week, that's procrastination meeting pumpkin patches and corn mazes for ya. I'm going to save myself some trouble this week and have the pictures between the paragraphs. Blogger is touchy enough without me having to do everything on my smartphone, and the last post caused me so much trouble I don't want to repeat the process.


Nemuri no Fuchi by Ayumu Nakamura

Art and story (c) Ayumu Nakamura

Genre: Shonen, Horror, Supernatural
Length: 3 Volumes - 14 Chapters



           The art is sufficiently creepy, but it's not really that interesting. The best things are the creatures that are seen at the very beginning and again at the climax, they are sort of like a demented Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. The rest of the art is summed up best by a very famous emoji: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The faces look a little squished sometimes, too drawn out and considering the faces are very minimal this does look odd from time to time. Though, the shading given to the main character's face does convey his depression and fear well. The clothes are unremarkable in every way, and while the actions and movements are fairly good, the actual proportions of the bodies are underdeveloped and stick-like. Underwhelming is the word I think describes it best.

           When he was little, Shuuhei liked to play hide and seek with his best friend Kaori, but that ended the day she went missing in the woods during one of their games. Around the same time, mysterious entraces to an otherworldly maze began appearing in closets and other doorways and those who go in are lost forever inside it. Convinced his childhood friend disappeared inside part of the maze, Shuuhei has isolated himself because of his guilt and his mental preparation for the day he finally finds a doorway to enter it himself and can finally save her.

           I'm going to repeat myself here and say again, underwhelming is the word I think describes it best. The plot takes a little too long to set up and get moving, and even then it goes too fast or too slow. Though, I have to say Shuuhei has a very realistic reaction to the maze full of monsters the first time he goes in, running away and hiding in fear. The next time, though, feels like a bit of random side tracking, again taking too long to explain. That really is the problem through out this whole manga, actually, there are a lot things introduced but with out real payout. Some of the time used to introduce various random things and people could have been spent explaing the maze in more detail. The characters themselves are given plenty of depth for the kind of harried story it is, so they carry the the plot through even though they story is weak at times. Shuuhei's estranged best friend, for example, adds extra support to the quest but also enables the author to have more speculation on the maze but not actually answer what it is exactly. Then there's the flimsy happy ending that is the bow on top. I found it anticlimactic, as well as cheap. All in all, it's a little creepy but its not fully fleshed out.



3/5 An okay spoopy read.

Is it Halloween yet?

Darn!

God's Child by Kyoudai Nishioka

Me+ Muscle relaxers = Zzz. Which makes it hard to read manga, you kind of have to be awake to do it, after all. I found a really interesting one this time, though I can't say I truly liked it now that all is said and done. 




God's Child by Kyoudai Nishioka

Art and story (c) Kyoudai Nishioka

Genre: Horror, Josei, Mature
Length: One Volume - 11 Chapters



           The art style here is very reminiscent of Victorian woodcuts, and other similar dark and

gothic styles (mostly Edward Gorey, I think). It has a very chilling effect, overall.
Considering that there is hardly dialog in this manga, the art carries most of the weight of the plot and it holds up. The loose and stretched feeling of the body proportions, the fascinatingly pretty hair, the strangely repeating patterns, and the shadowed and skewed backgrounds, all of it really adds to the spooky atmosphere. The eyes convey just as well as the rest of it how strange this story is.
           Take a step inside someone's life, someone who is definitely not normal…
           This basically reads as a FBI profile of a serial killer, or a detached sociopath's rendition of one. Violence and desire all done in the name of simply doing it. As such, only adults should read this manga, and I've reviewed a few adult manga at this point so I'm beginning to wonder if I should put on the content warning for my blog? I try not to share any explicit pictures, or write anything explicit, but we when it comes to

Halloween and I read these spooky and horror mangas I get worried... As far as this particular manga was concerned, even I was a little thrown at the beginning and almost quit, but it was so strange that I went through with it anyway. Just to see what happened with this young man's life. I'm not sure what to rate it, either. It attracts and repells at the same time. What I can say is that as a long time reader of manga, this was interesting in its own, unique way. I didn't like it, per se, but it had a certain charm as well. So, if you would like to try reading a manga full of gore about a sociopath growing up into a cult leader, give it a try but I am warning you now. Its quite haunting.





??/5 If you like horror try it, I guess. It's pretty weird.

Doctor Du Ming

Imeant to post this yesterday but hey, the 2nd is just as spoopy as the 1st to start this year's Halloween Spectacular!!!!!! Too many exclamation points? My sister and I already put up our Halloween Town on the fireplace mantle, we love the season so. While I still have to do everything on my phone, I I hope I can find some good scary manga this year.

Doctor Du Ming by Jing Zhang and Jinglong Han

Sorry about the poor image quality

Genre: Seinen, Suspense, Horror
Length: One Volume - 15 Chapters


           The art is very smooth and pretty, and the eyes have a dark and mysterious depth in

them. Appealing, though at times a bit vacant, but that adds to the suspense because it's so hard to guess what exactly anyone is thinking. There's not a lot of action in this but activity is pretty static, almost stagnant. The body anatomy and clothing are fitting and the backgrounds are good. I think there isn't a lot of memorable originality but it is high quality.
           Du Ming is an anesthesiologist who is very low energy and almost detached from life, despite his handsome face. When he gets a call from an old colleague that shakes him, he lets some of his calm slip, though because the woman he fell in love with and obsessed over since college has suddenly committed suicide.
           Just a little spooky story to start off the season, more suspense than gore, but there's some good elements in it, too. I don't believe I've reviewed very many Chinese manhua, and I almost didn't review this one because of its slow start. The deceptively mundane plot of a doctor who is indifferent

to just about every part of life. Then, suddenly the perspective of this man shifts and you're smack dab in the middle of a faceted horror story. Its not really one you might have guessed at the beginning of the story, either. Personally I had a point where I went 'Oh, he's liket hat, huh?' and gained much more interest from then on. It's not overly complicated but it has a few points that can be mulled and connected as you go and think about at the end. If you're looking for a suspense comic about the darkness of dangerous love this is a good example.


3/5 A little slow, but an interesting read.

And because it is my favorite Halloween meme:

Cradle of Monsters by Kei Sanbe

 That is the end of Zombie Awareness Month 2016, I hope it gave you some insight on how to survive the zombie invasion when it comes. There is a really good tip in this manga, too.

When up against zombies, always go for the neck if you can.

I won't be posting next week because it's my birthday then and I don't feel like it. Plus, it will let me get ahead a little bit, which is good for a lazy person like myself. With school almost out, though, I won't have to worry about work anymore either. I should get some longer manga read finally.



Cradle of Monsters by Kei Sanbe


Genre: Seinen, Horror, Ecchi
Length: 6 Volumes – 41 Chapters

Art and story (c) Kei Sanbe

           I want to say the art is as good as the story, but there are a lot of extra lines in the clothes and background that I found distracting. The faces have a unique look to them, snub-nosed and grim but expressions aren't all that changeable. The eyes and hair have a lot of different looks to them, though, and the eyes especially show expression best

even if they look sinister when they don't need to. The action is follow-able and the gore has a good balance. It's not just guts everywhere or the like, but the blood and wound detail gives exactly what is needed in a zombie story. The backgrounds are there consistently, and really add to the dilapidated feel of the setting, even if it isn't immediately recognizable.
           When a maniac goes on a killing spree on a cruise ship, a group of high school classmates have to band together to protect one another, but when a tremor adds to the confusion and their ship capsizes staying together becomes the least of their problems. It seems like its more than just one man who has gone crazy and is killing people on sight. Is it simply coincidence that so much happened all at once? And can the small bands of survivors make it out alive?
           The last manga this year is the most 'horror' one of the three zombie stories. It has a proper plot that continues in a logical way and it has lots of characters to zombie-fy and murder off. I really enjoyed it, despite it being one of the type that shows panties (and towards the end just full naked shots) randomly. The zombie angle wasn't just expected to fly with no type of explanations and it

gives a good take on the process. There was a little bit of things getting convoluted towards the end when all the ends were being tied off, but nothing logic breaking. Everyone gets theirs so its pretty satisfying. Especially the long burn on a few of the more annoying characters that make you want to strangle them, in that fun-hate way, who get it in the worst way. The psychology was done pretty good, too, though at times it was repetitive, it wasn't too preachy. I was worried in the middle it would be a story that ends in tragedy and no one makes it out despite the terrible struggles they went through to try, and I would have liked this a lot less had that been the case, but its nice to have a horror manga that isn't just depressingly ended with no survivors. Not to say that everyone you expect to make it does, though. No deep spoilers, zipping lip. Well, except to say that one of the main characters randomly grew up in a circus and it just sorta seems to come out of left field with a tiger and from time to time other strange character actions or plot twists do happen like that but again, nothing breakable to the story.  The beginning is a little slow, though the terrible misspellings on my version of the manga did not help that, the story keeps things moving pretty good with the extra shots of random zombies and bad guys showing up at good intervals. Its not just that I didn't enjoy the first two zombie manga that make this one look good, I assure you. Zombies hungry for flesh on a sinking boat, it takes survival horror up one more notch.



4/5 Enjoyable and bloody escape story.

Tokyo Zombie by Yusaku Hanakuma

Zombie posts begin with a shortie. And it is a doozy. And here is a helpful tip on zombies, thanks to Monkey D. Luffy:

He makes it seem so easy, doesn't he? Happy Zombie Awareness Month.

[I don't usually review any manga with explicit things because its less accessible for readers, but when it comes to zombie gore its hard to avoid. So this is the warning, this manga, though it is for comedic effect, contains several instances of nudity.]


Tokyo Zombie by Yusaku Hanakuma

Art and story (c) Yusaku Hanakuma

Genre: Adult, Gag, Horror

Length: One Volume – 9 Chapters

           This manga has a careless look to it. The art is boldly simple and sloppy, and as such there is no point in me trying to explain it. That sounds lazy, but one look will show you exactly what you're getting art wise from this manga, so there's really no point in me trying to use words.
           Thanks to the Black Fuji, a huge pile of trash and corpses that everyone uses freely, the zombie apocalypse has begun in Tokyo. Two brothers? Who's favorite pastime is to practice wrestling must now survive the changing world.
           Okay, so, besides the strange art, as you might expect, the story telling is just as strange. Its just as careless as the art, which is a good and bad thing. I means that the funny faces enhances the  jokey parts but it also makes it hard to love. More than anything, this manga is a fighting manga, but the fights really are just guys rolling around and the "action" (if you want to call it that) is impossible

to follow. Its so strange I liked it but I don't think I'll ever want to read it again. You may think you want to see a dude with an afro fight zombies but really, its not as cool as it sounds. There is just peculiar stuff happening constantly. There are literally random panels of the main character's dog doing nothing but sitting still. Just suddenly it cuts to the dog's expressionless face. Don't get me wrong, Tokyo Zombie is amusing but I don't know why it was written or why so many people like it as much as they do. It is on every list of recommended zombie manga ever. Its an experience, that is the best way I can put it and while a veteran of manga such as myself found the style an interesting experiment, I don't see that many people would enjoy reading it again and again. Perhaps it isn't my style, but the humor is true. What else can I say but, pig surfing dude.


2/5 Weird. Zombies. Weird zombies.

I'd be jealous, too if I sucked at pig surfing. I'm super rad at it, tho.

51 Ways To Save My Girlfriend by Usamaru Furuya

 May the 4th be with you! I had to baby sit my 3 year old niece so I made her watch the original Star Wars with me, it was fun. May also is Zombie Awareness Month, though I do not have enough zombie manga to post one every week this year, so I'm just going to save the zombies for later but I will recommend a few posts from last year that I found totally fun and would read again if I had the time but I started re-reading One Piece and catching up on new chapters and that is going to take some time I tell you what. Anyway, if you haven't read Sankarea yet, do so, as well as Unlucky Boy Undead Girl (its the third one down on this page but the first two are pretty good, too). Hopefully some ongoing manga will finish by next May, or the zombie apocalypse will actually happen, so I can find some then. Well, enough of this run on sentence riddled intro and on the the actual review...



51 Ways To Save My Girlfriend by Usamaru Furuya

Art and story (c) Usamaru Furuya

Genre: Adult Survival Horror
Length: 5 Volumes – 49 Chapters



           The art was pretty bad, but at times I found it perfectly pleasing. I really can't figure out this art at all, it has sort of a skewed look to it as well has having caricature-type designs to people so then the regular people tend to just look awkward. The clothes are interesting and all but they do not always seem to fit people very well. Initially I found the eyes off putting, then they sort of went from fine to empty randomly, and I had a hard time coping with what people were actually feeling. As this is a survival manga, there is a lot of crying and the tears are not realistic in anyway, just large obstructions in people's eyes. Its a bit of the 'ugly' man art that seinen get at times that are semi-realistic but then the main characters were rather less realistic looking so they didn't match a lot of the other characters. Let’s just say, the art isn't terrible.
           When a large earthquake hits Japan, a young man and a middle school friend who just happened to meet on the street, are thrown together in the most extreme circumstances.
           This manga is like Dragon Head, but less convoluted and more preachy. I realized when I was starting this blog that I would end up reading manga that I did not like, in fact I have quit manga or simply have not reviewed them because I didn't think I could even muster the energy to complain about them. This was almost one of those. What seems like

an interesting title and plot turns into just men trying to rape women for, like, three volumes straight. I am not exaggerating. Interspersed with the main characters are explanations of what would actually happen if an earthquake happened, such as ground water seepage and fire storms, but then what starts as a warning tale of people getting drunk and women being alone and in danger turns into the whole plot line instead of another warning taking over. I got really bored really quickly. I don't usually use this as a bad thing, but this manga is also very Japanese. The main characters are going through famous Tokyo landmarks and districts but as I only recognized about half of them, the two page spreads of the destroyed skylines really did nothing for me, let alone knew where they were in relation to where the characters were trying to get to. Japan has a real problem with the threat of earthquakes and its interesting to see an artist's idea of what would happen. That is why people like to read post apocalyptic stories, to imagine this world we have going to total hell and how people would cope. In this manga's case though, it actually seemed like it was giving advice at times but that advice was dispensed in long-winded fourth wall breaking dialog boxes that really begged to be skimmed instead of read carefully. Even the characters themselves aren't worth mentioning, they were so flat. All in all I feel like I wasted my time, unfortunately. At least this was much shorter than Dragon Head and has nothing to do with the government secretly drugging people. It does have the eyes, though.


1/5 Tiresome after a while and with art that is a little hard to take in.

Dragon Head by Minetaro Mochizuki

 Sorry, can't hear you I'm eating Corn Nuts *CRUNCH* *CRUNCH*



Dragon Head by Minetaro Mochizuki 

Art and story (c)

Minetaro Mochizuki

Genre: Survival, Sienen, Horror
Length: 10 Volumes – 89 Chapters


          The art is mainly realistic, as such it can be a little bracing at times, especially if the last thing you read was more shojo oriented. Still, Dragon Head has a practiced look and there isn't a lot to complain about. Its really the details that get in the way sometimes. At certain points, I felt like I
understood how stressed and worn out the characters were with out so much dirt on their faces or extra bags under their eyes. I mean, art like this can be hard to look at normally, but adding even more "ugly" on top of it doesn't make it any more palatable. The action isn't always easy to follow, either. I know this sounds really negative, and if you look at it you can understand what I mean when I say, I can't really describe the good parts beyond 'it is professional.' Take my word for it, the art is the best part of this if you can stand this more realistic style.
           When a bullet train derails in a tunnel, a single student finds himself alive amid all the corpses of his classmates. What caused the crash, he doesn't know, but he does know he's trapped in the darkness. Can anyone else have survived? Can he survive enough to be rescued? Or will he have to find his own way out before the darkness drives him mad?
           So, do you want to read a manga that’s a lot of philosophizing and pondering about human nature and then, at the end, gives no no answers but just rambles on about the same things it did in the first volume? Yeah, me neither, but I found one anyway. In my defense, the beginning is actually pretty interesting. Dragon Head, though it pulls you along with page turning, intense and engrossing situations, is equally bogged down by pages of exposition about human nature and what disasters do to society. The first few volumes, this balance isn't annoying or slowing, because, as the plot goes, the main character is stuck in a dark tunnel with no idea of why or how and the panic creeps in but when the situation changes, the conversations don't change. Then, instead of giving some sort of concrete answer at the end of things you just have to cobble together all the long winded things you've heard over ten volumes, and even then its shaky whether you really

understand anything at all, let alone the reason you had to slog through it. To pull a Dragon Head and repeat myself in slightly different wording, this manga is just such a long read of the same types of things happening again and again, I can't really say I enjoyed it now that I'm at the end. The look into teenagers trying to survive and understand something like a natural disaster starts out with promise, too, looking at madness and injury and how desperation never fades, but, after a while, things just get more muddled. There's some sort of side plot of people being fed drugs that get rid of fear, but why that was introduced is a mystery to me because it only makes things more confusing. And believe me, I am very confused, still, and have a lot of questions. How do those stitch headed people fit into the disaster? How much of the disaster was actually man made? What the hell did I just read and why did I spend so much time doing so? These answers cannot be answered, and I refuse to spend hours reading Dragon Head again just to try to make sense of some of it. This manga needed to dig a little deeper or at least give some sort of closure, instead of ending so swiftly. I was disappointed by this, to say the least, but as far as a natural disaster story goes, there is a lot of interesting things brought up, especially in the beginning. There is a bit of Japanese geography in it, too, that may have made things a little more confusing, but not much. A less clunky translation may have helped, too, but it was also only a minor problem. I have mixed feelings about how to rate this manga because of how much liked the beginning and how much I hated the ending. If this had ended around the third of fourth volume, as impossible as that would have been, I think I could have given it a three or four, but as it stands...



2/5 Confusing, but with an interesting start.

Sugiru Juunana no Haru story by Fuyumi Ono and art by Kotetsuko Yamamoto

I need a break from specific themed manga searching for a while... I think this last spooky manga was actually really good, but it was a bit of a grind this Halloween to find a suitable one (come to think of it, I think last year was the same). If I wasn't so lazy I'd try to stockpile manga a little earlier in the year. At least I don't have to worry about Thanksgiving themed manga, that's something to give thanks for in my book. I hope you all had a Happy Halloween, in any case.



Sugiru Juunana no Haru story by Fuyumi Ono and art by Kotetsuko Yamamoto

This picture is kind of awkward, isn't it?

Genre: Horror Josei
Length: 2 Volumes – 14 Chapters



          The art is satisfactory, at times its a bit sketchy, with most of the effort put into the emotions the characters are going through. The expressions vary and give a lot to the story, actually. The character designs are a little generic, but its not overbearingly cliché or anything like that. The hair

has a nice, soft look and the eyes have a realistic and energetic look. The clothes aren't overly interesting but they fit the bodies well. The backgrounds were a little lacking, often a darker tone would have made the manga that more spooky, otherwise it was typical. I don't really think there was anything special about this art but it was well done overall.
           Naoki and Nori go every summer to visit their aunt and cousin in the countryside, and this year is no different than any other. Naoki and his cousin, Takashi, are very close in age, only half a month apart, and both are soon to be seventeen. Everyone gets along so well, the first few days are an excellent vacation for the city kids. Then, overnight, Takashi changes completely, becoming surly and mistreating his mother and cousins. Can this have something to do with what he was telling Naoki the night before, though the older boy didn't believe it, that Takashi saw a ghost?
           This ghost story, though incorporating many well known Japanese ghost story tropes, was something I'd never wholly seen before. Not just in the way it was told but the conclusion of it. The start is long and slow so that you have plenty of time to contemplate what might be going on before anything actually does. It takes a lot to pull one over on

me, and this story half-way got me, but that twist isn't the end of the story either. Unlike some tales, you get the whole plot, no questions unanswered with out the story running at breakneck speed or the ending being only half there. This low and slow pacing also kept me wondering just what would happen next. Its a ghost story with out all the jump scares or over used tropes. I really enjoyed it, and there were only a few minor things that bothered me. The biggest was the art, in case you couldn't tell by my lackluster description at the beginning. I think I've read a lot of manga that look just like this one, but, considering the art and story are done by different people I think the gap between how well the story is done and how generic the art is is easily dismissed. By which I mean, its understandable that it could happen, even though I'm not very happy about it. The second thing that bothered me was that the narrative sometimes changed to another person, or it starts up and its a little unclear immediately who is supplying it. Still, the strength of the story and how it creeped along are what shine and I liked the atypical way it was presented.




4/5 The story is interestingly spooky with out being gory.

Indeed.

Triple Halloween Feature

I've just had no luck with the manga I picked this year. Two thirds of the ones I read were not suitable for Halloween as far as I was concerned even though they had some sort of supernatural element to them and the half of the rest I didn't much feel like reviewing due to either they were just not worth it or some other force stopped me. In one case that was my computer crashing. In fact as I was editing this review, my computer, a different computer, crashed. I'm going to try for one more post on Saturday, but I've got a party to prepare for so it might be the day after, if I can even find one. Blah, blah, blah... random gif.

Black Paradox by Junji Itou

Art and story (c) Junji Itou

Genre: Horror, Seinen
Length: One Volume – 6 Chapters and 2 Extras

No, seriously this guy.

           The art style isn't entirely gothic, but it has a dark look to it for sure with lanky hair and lots of inked in black clothes. The faces are semi realistic, and so is the hair, and there is lots of variety to the characters as well. Just look at that long faced guy, seriously. The art is also very practiced from every angle. The movements are natural and the clothing fit well on the body frames. The clothing isn't all that interesting on its own, though, it is mostly black suits and dresses. The backgrounds are very detailed and the panels are concise and easy to follow. I can find no fault in the art of this manga, except that it looks creepy and unsettling but that is the point so it doesn’t really count.
           A group of strangers meet up one afternoon after making a date over the internet, the purpose of this outing is to drive to a secluded spot and participate in a group suicide. Things aren't entirely what they seem though, and when one member of the carpool notices another vehicle pass them with all the same passengers inside except for herself, things begin to get strange. Is it a premonition or something much more sinister that allowed this vision?
           What the f*** did I just read? No seriously, someone tell me, WTF did I just read?!? Its weird horror manga like this that has made me only read this genre at Halloween. I literally can't comprehend why someone ever thought of a story like this, let alone why they would draw it out so neatly for me to come along and read it. If the rest of the manga was like the first chapter I think I would have been okay, but no, Black Paradox takes a strange turn and then just puts pedal to the metal on this new road. I don't traditionally spoil things but the confusing nature of this manga has forced my hand. Okay, so, when, after the first chapter is over, and the group decides to go though with their suicide pact a second time (I'm not going to explain the first chapter because I actually liked that one) only one of them goes through with it. The other three stare in shock at his dead body before the man throws up an amazing jewel and comes back to life. No explanation later, and his stomach explodes from the jewels, two of the party try to sell these jewels because they are pretty even though they are certain the gems are crystallized souls from another dimension. The afterlife I guess, since the portal opened when he tried to kill himself, thus the crystals are souls. The last of the group slowly succumbs to almost insane fear, but it turns out that’s because a portal to the dimension the other man had in his stomach is opening in her brain, and the other two have portals, too, just in case you were worrying this was all random. In comes an enterprising doctor who operates on them all to get the portals so he can share in the wealth of the shining orb shaped stones that also explode with demonic energy when any force is put to them. Then, it ends with the fact that only they can go through their own portals and the doctor forces them all to gather the jewels. Oh yes, and these gems will, in the future, destroy humanity and the portal jumpers know this because they just do. I'm so confused. Someone, anyone, please tell me why I read this.



2/5 Interesting art, confusing plot.





Emerging by Masaya Hokazono

Art and story (c) Masaya Hokazono...also, ew.

Genre: Horror, Seinen
Length: 2 Volumes – 22 Chapters



           The art style is a semi-realistic with simplistic black iris eyes. The hair comes in all types of

They are clearly passing some message through their eyes here.

true-to-life styles and the faces are of all different shapes. The clothes are nothing amazing, but realistic as well, with good fit and plenty of sorts, though they are mostly hazmat suits from the third chapter onward. What I remember most now that I'm done with this story is the eye beams. Flares of light that exploded from the ocular regions of characters when something needed to be extra dramatic. Other than that, the art is done well, but not with any particularly remarkable detail.        
           When a man explodes in a fit of blood at a crowded intersection, his condition is met with fear and curiosity. The doctors begin to worry and, soon, everyone in contact with him are getting ill with flu-like symptoms and the emergency protocols don't seem to be able to contain or even control the spread of the disease despite all the good intentions that went into them. If a new virus emerges in modern Japan, will the society be able to cope or will they perish through panic and ignorance?
           This manga is a look at the spread of disease in modern society, and how people's fears and over confidence negatively impact it. Its an interesting look, though the ending isn't really realistic, in my opinion. After the recent-ish Ebola scare, I found this almost relevant. Thinking about a sick person spreading an unknown disease or finding a mutated already known disease is quite scary, even for a person like me who doesn't live in a crowded city and that aspect of the story is well shown. Though there were a few things that ruined the illusion of 'what if' for me. The strangest element, a character who is so obsessed with diseases its a fetish, is the worst offender. Throwing a character like that in gives some comic relief to the overall plot but she has no point in being in such a serious story at all. A time reference is also a little hard to pin down, so some of the urgency is lost to ambiguous frame of reference for how fast the sickness is progressing. The infected are quite gross, though, so that helps with spooky feeling you get. It really is about the human factor of the problem, though, so it isn't really that scary though the end tries to keep the creepy going through speculation that I found just boring.



3/5 Realistic germ scares, but nothing really ambitious.




Furou Kyoudai by Yuki Shiwasu

Art and story (c) Yuki Shiwasu

Genre: Supernatural Shojo
Length: One Volume -5 Chapters and a few extras


           The most distinctive feature of this manga is the big eyes, and I really liked that feature, the shape of them give the characters lots of expression, but they can also have excellent detail when the story calls for it. The hair also has a lot of personality, and not just in the main characters, either, their parents are easily recognizable as are the random classmates that only show up in one chapter, I enjoyed looking out for them as much as I liked the main two's looks. The backgrounds come and go,
but not any more or less than any other manga. The clothes aren't really anything special, either, but they add to the ambiance of the story by being mostly dark and heavy school uniforms. I actually really enjoyed the art, it has a uniqueness to it and a quality I find very endearing.
           Kyoko and Daisuke are twins who can never be apart, and while most people misunderstand them, they have very good reasons for sticking so close to one another. Apart, the two of them are weak and ghosts congregate around them causing them to get ill or scaring them, but, somehow, together, they repel such supernatural forces with gusto. While they understand they can't be together forever, the twins can't bare to force themselves apart. How will they cope when one of them finds an admirer?
           Aw, why did this manga end so soon? Its the only one of the three of these that I actually liked. This silly pair of twins deserves many more pages of manga, I tell you! I was worried about this comic at first because the description sounds a little incestuous, but Furou Kyodai is actually just about siblings who literally can't be apart with out being assaulted by ghosts who, as a result, are very close emotionally as well. As a pair, they also have different personalities that match and also go against one another. Kyoko, for example, is the loud mouth, but she also thinks about others kindly. Her 'little' brother Daisuke is the quieter of the pair but he understands people really well, especially when in comes to getting his sister to listen. The two of them together make a pair of 'rushes ahead' and 'is there when she needs him' that allow for not only sensible routes in the plot lines but it also gives up a ton of humor. The goofiness of the situations and personalities shine, the expressive eyes really help in that regard, but I also found myself wrapped up in the emotional aspect of the stories, too. In fact, had there been a few more sad stories in a second volume or something I think I might have teared up a bit. As it was, one chapter in particular pulled my heart strings and I was actually surprised that I had gotten so attached. Seriously, though, why isn't there more of these creepy twins?


5/5 I'd read this again and again.



Another random Halloween gif, cuz I forgot to find a cute panel to add here at the end...

Doubt by Yoshiki Tonogai

Doubt by Yoshiki Tonogai

Art and story (c) Yoshiki Tonogai

Genre: Horror, Shonen
Length: 4 Volumes – 20 Chapters


            The art is fairly generic for it's time, but not amateur. The eyes are the worst example, they are all just the same shapes and sizes that have been seen in a hundred other places, but there is decent

enough detail to the art despite the generic look. The clothes fit well to the frames and action movements, but they, too, are generic. The backgrounds, on the other hand, are there and give a good idea of what the setting is with out cluttering the panels. I don't remember anytime the movements or body frames looked out of proportion or anything, either. All in all, though, the fact that each character is 'generic' or a 'trope' doesn't much bother considering the murder mystery theme of the story and that helps to further the suspicion and what not. Or it could make things annoying, depending on your point of view of murder mysteries. In confusing conclusion, the art is good, but its not really anything worth noting beyond that.
            Rabbit Doubt is a popular online game where a group of people are assigned roles randomly, all but one being 'rabbits' and the lone one chosen as the 'wolf.' In the game of suspicion, the wolf chooses who to kill and the rabbits try to figure out who the killer is by killing off one of their own until they are either all dead or the wolf is found. One group who have often played Rabbit Doubt together decide to meet up in real life to get to know each other better, but when they wake up in an abandoned building with no recollection of how they got there, it soon becomes apparent that a new game of doubt is being started. So who is the wolf, and who are the rabbits?
            This happens to be one manga I've read before and decided to go back and read again. Though, I only chose Doubt because of it's content, not because I really liked it the first time around, but because it left a good horror impression. Doubt is enjoyable, at first, its a well paced and interesting murder mystery manga, but the ending is more than a little muddled. You never know who is next and you can only wildly speculate whether there is an outside force or whether one of the characters is the murderer. I'll try not to spoil too much as I write the rest of this review. I really like the 'Rabbit Doubt' game that is given at the beginning, it seems like an interesting game that people would enjoy playing, and it nicely sets up the rest of the manga. I actually would want a little hung rabbit key chain like the players have, but that's just my morbid sense of cute. Then when things get going, this manga follows along fairly logically with the premise given, at least until the 'reveal.' I do wish it didn't have such a long introduction though; you get to know the characters in the first unveiling but then there is a bit of an overly long extra set of pages of them in a karaoke bar that just slows down the story to almost a stand still right when things should be picking up. Beyond that, like I've mentioned, its not until the last volume where the plot starts to show some holes. I think wrapping it all up just led to a little too much explanation, though after that, it gets back on track. As I said in the art section, the overly trope-y design to the characters rides a line. On the one hand, having characters that seem simple and recognizable is typical for murder mysteries, it makes it easy to get into the story (or the character its self if you happen to be the one acting out the game) but the generic 'teen' character that the main person is given does leave sympathy for him at times hard to continue. In other words, his attitude is hard to pin down and sometimes its hard to tell exactly who he's supposed to be. He gets away with it, I suppose, it just bothered me from a writing stand point. If it wasn't worth a second read, I wouldn't have found it again after all this time, Doubt is memorable if nothing else. The mangaka has actually written two other Doubt-like manga but I can't find them to read them, unfortunately, that would have been an interesting review. Anyways, Doubt is not a bad little couple of hours worth of suspense.




3.5/5 A murder mystery done well enough, though a little lite on character. 

Creepy masks are always a plus!